Exchange Server

Mark Grace · Guest

Hi All:

We're about to embark on a 5.5 to 2003 Exchange migration.

Currently we have 3 AD domains in one forest. These domains are
corp.trihealth.net and gha.trihealth.net. The root domain is
trihealth.net. There is also a NT 4.0 domain called TPS. This domain
will eventually be in-place upgraded into the trihealth.net forest as
tps.trihealth.net.

We have 3 email servers, hosting about 3000 mailboxes, running Exchange
5.5. The users for these mailboxes are located in both the
corp.trihealth.net AD domain (Windows 2003) and the Windows NT 4.0
domain, TPS. The corp user's mailboxes are in the 5.5 container
'recipients'. The TPS mailboxes are in the 'TPS Recipients' container.

The GHA domain currently uses Notes - this will eventually be migrated
to Exchange, but not anytime soon, so it's not part of the immediate
project.

We've installed the ADC, which is currently syncing the
corp.trihealth.net domain with the 5.5 Organization: corp.trihealth.net
<-> 5.5 ORG/Recipients Container.

These are the steps that I plan to follow next:

1. In-place upgrade TPS domain into trihealth.net forest, creating
tps.trihealth.net.
2. Create ADC connection agreement to syncronize tps.trihealth.net <->
5.5 ORG/TPS Recipients Container.
3. Install first 2003 Exchange server into 5.5 ORG (We'll end up with
4 in a clustered configuration). All Exchange servers will be in the
corp.trihealth.net domain.
4. Migrate mailboxes
5. Decommision 5.5 servers.

Am I missing anything, any gotchas?

Also, if I've forced to do the 2003 upgrade and remove 5.5 before the
4.0 TPS domain is upgraded, what are the ramifications - esp when I do
go to upgrade it to 2003 AD?

Thank you!
Mark

Al Mulnick · Guest

"Am I missing anything, any gotchas?"

Testing comes to mind :) What is your 5.5 topology today? Do they all
share (with the exception of Notes) the same GAL? Does that have to
continue? What about the requirements of the native mode domains (in this
case, 2000 or greater)?
I'm not sure I would have put the first server in that domain given your
organizational structure, but it's hard to tell about your environment and
how it's run exactly.

"Also, if I've forced to do the 2003 upgrade and remove 5.5 before the
4.0 TPS domain is upgraded, what are the ramifications - esp when I do
go to upgrade it to 2003 AD?"

Ramifications? It would get funky most likely. A better path is to upgrade
the domain first and then go back and upgrade to Exchange 2003. The same
path that Microsoft took to make them.

does that help?
Al

Mark Grace · Guest

Testing is a must, of course.. :)

We do all share the same GAL. That should continue. The TPS users are
in their own container in 5.5.

The 'corp' domain is the main resource domain, where the administrators
reside, hence my thinking. Why would you place it elsewhere? I'm open
to other suggestions.

Funky was my thought as well...

It does, thanks.

Mark

Al Mulnick · Guest

Usually for political reasons more than anything. There is no technical
reason to put the first in any other domain, but it often makes sense to put
it in the most neutral domain and a domain that is not going to be broken
off. If you have a root and a corp that both have the same purpose, there
would be no reason to deploy in a separate domain that I can think of.

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